A suspected New Year's Eve terror plot by an extremist group has been foiled by federal authorities in Los Angeles, officials say.

Four alleged members of the Turtle Island Liberation Front - an offshoot of a pro-Palestinian anti-government group - have been arrested on suspicion of planning a coordinated bombing attack in at least five locations across southern California, the FBI and LA law enforcement said on Monday.

The suspects were apprehended last week while traveling to the desert east of Los Angeles to test improvised explosive devices, officials said.

The FBI believes it has "disrupted the plot", but an investigation to identify other potential suspects is ongoing.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X on Sunday that the agencies prevented "far-left" extremists from executing "a massive and horrific terror plot".

Audrey Illeene Carroll, 30; Zachary Aaron Page, 32; Dante Gaffield, 24; and Tina Lai, 41, face charges including conspiracy and possession of an unregistered destructive device, according to the complaint filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California.

On 12 December, the group travelled to the desert with "precursor chemicals" and were allegedly going to create bombs with their wares, officials said during a media conference on Monday.

A surveillance plane captured footage of their movements and the Los Angeles FBI SWAT team, along with the FBI, moved in and arrested the quartet without incident.

The bombing plot involved explosive devices being planted at locations that targeted two US companies described as logistic centres at midnight on New Year's Eve in the Los Angeles area.

The group also allegedly discussed attacking Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and vehicles with pipe bombs in January or February, according to the complaint said.

Carroll allegedly said: "That would take some of them out and scare the rest of them."

"The successful disruption of this plot is a powerful testament to the strength of our unified response," said LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, adding that work through allied agencies "prevented a potential tragedy and reaffirmed our shared commitment to safeguarding our communities".

At a meeting of his cabinet at the White House two weeks ago, US President Donald Trump looked around the long room filled with his top advisers, administration officials and aides, and made a prediction.

The next Republican presidential candidate, he said, is "probably sitting at this table".

"It could be a couple of people sitting at this table," he added, hinting at possible electoral clashes to come.

Despite a constitutional amendment limiting him to two four-year terms, his supporters chanted "four more years" at a rally last Tuesday night in Pennsylvania. Trump said at the time that the final three years of his second term amount to an "eternity".

But in the cabinet room last week, when talking about prospects for the 2028 Republican president nomination, he was clear: "It's not going to be me."

The next presidential election may seem a long way off, but Trump's own speculation – and certain frictions within Trump's coalition - suggest that the jockeying to succeed and define the Make America Great Again (Maga) movement after Trump is well under way.

In last month's local elections, the Republican Party lost support among the minority and working-class voters who helped Trump win back the White House in 2024.

Members of his team have feuded over policy. And some, most notably Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, have cut loose from his orbit, accusing the president of losing touch with the Americans who gave him power.

There has been speculation about fractures within the Maga base in certain quarters of the international press, as well as at home. On Monday, a headline in The Washington Post asked: "Maga leaders warn Trump the base is checking out. Will he listen?"

The warning signs are there. While Trump has long been known for being in tune with his base, the months ahead will pose a series of challenges to the president and his movement. Nothing less than his political legacy is at stake.

From Vance to Rubio: A team of rivals?

It was all smiles and talk of historic presidential achievements inside the friendly confines of Trump's newly redecorated, gold-bedecked cabinet room two weeks ago.

But the presidential aspirants Trump may have had in mind as he looked around the table hint at just how hard it could be to keep his Maga movement from stretching apart at the seams.

Vice-President JD Vance sat directly across from the president. As his running mate, he is widely considered to be Trump's most likely heir apparent – the favourite of Trump's sons and libertarian Silicon Valley tech billionaires.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was on the president's immediate right. The former Florida senator, who competed with Trump for the Republican nomination in 2016, had spent the past 10 years undergoing a Maga transformation.

He has jettisoned his past support for liberalising immigration policy and his hard line on Russia in lieu of Trump's America First foreign policy. But if there is anyone close to an old-guard Republican with influence in Trump's party, Rubio tops the list.

Then there is Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, whose vaccine scepticism and "Make America Healthy Again" agenda have sent earthquakes through the US health bureaucracy; he sat two down from Rubio. The Democrat-turned-independent-turned-Republican is a living embodiment of the strange ideological bedfellows Trump made on his way to re-election last year.

And finally, Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, was tucked off to the corner of the table. While the former South Dakota governor is not considered a major presidential contender, her advocacy for aggressive immigration enforcement – including a recent call for a full travel ban on "every damn country that's been flooding our nation with killers, leeches and entitlement junkies" – has made her a prominent face of administration's policies.

Each might believe they could, if they chose to run, become Trump's political heir and take control of the political movement that has reshaped American politics over the last decade.

But to paraphrase Benjamin Franklin's comments at the birth of American democracy, whoever wins the Republican nomination will have been given a winning coalition – if they can keep it.

The Republican empire transformed

Of course none of this is guaranteed - nor is it certain that the next generation of Maga leaders will be someone from the president's inner circle. Trump stormed the White House as a political outsider. The next Republican leader may follow a similar path.

"It's going to be up to the next Republican president who follows Trump to set him or herself apart," says former Republican Congressman Rodney Davis of Illinois, who now works for the US Chamber of Commerce.

"But at the same time make sure that you don't go too far away, because clearly it's Donald Trump [who] got elected president twice."

When the November 2028 presidential election rolls around, American voters may not even want someone like Trump. Some public opinion polls suggest that the president may not be as popular as he once was.

A survey by YouGov earlier this month indicated the president had a net approval rating of -14, compared with +6 when he took office again in January. Then there are concerns about the economy and his relentless efforts to push the boundaries of presidential power.

Leadership of Trump's movement still represents the keys to the Republican empire, however, even if that empire has drastically changed in recent years.

"I think the Republican coalition has become fundamentally different over the last few decades," said Davis, who served in Congress from 2013 to 2023. "The Republican coalition that existed when Ronald Reagan was elected is not the Republican coalition anymore."

Back in the 1980s, the Reagan coalition was a fusion of free-market economics, cultural conservatism, anti-communism and international foreign affairs, says Laura K Field, author of Furious Minds: The Making of the Maga New Right.

Trump's party, she continues, was perhaps best described by long-time Trump adviser and current state department official Michael Anton in a 2016 essay advocating for Trump's election. In contrast with the Reagan era, its core principles include "secure borders, economic nationalism and America-first foreign policy".

'Normie Republicans' versus 'the edgelords'

Earlier this month, the conservative Manhattan Institute released a comprehensive survey of Republican voters, shedding more light on the composition of Trump's coalition.

It suggested that 65% of the current Republican Party are what it calls "core Republicans" – those who have supported party presidential nominees since at least 2016. (If they were alive in the 1980s, they may well have voted for Reagan.)

On the other hand, 29% are what the Institute called "new entrant Republicans". It is among those new Republicans that the challenge to the durability of Trump's coalition presents itself.

Only just over half said they would "definitely" support a Republican in next year's mid-term congressional elections.

According to the survey, the new entrants are younger, more diverse and more likely to hold views that break with traditional conservative orthodoxy. They hold comparatively more left-leaning views of economic policy, they tend to be more liberal on immigration and social issues, and they may also be more pro-China or critical of Israel, for example.

Jesse Arm, vice-president of external affairs at the Manhattan Institute, told the BBC in an email: "A lot of the conversation about the future of the right is being driven by the loudest and strangest voices online, rather than by the voters who actually make up the bulk of the Republican coalition."

Perhaps not surprisingly, the so-called new entrant Republican voters are significantly less supportive of some of Trump's would-be heirs. While 70% of core Republicans have positive views of Rubio and 80% for Vance, just over half of new entrants feel that way about either.

Other findings could be more concerning for Republicans.

More than half of new entrants believe the use of political violence in American politics "is sometimes justified" – compared to just 20% among core Republicans.

It also suggests they may be more likely to be tolerant of racist or anti-Semitic speech and more prone to conspiratorial thinking – on topics like the moon landings, 9/11 and vaccines.

Trump was able to attract these voters into his coalition. The question is whether he and his political heirs can keep them there – or if they even want to.

"The real takeaway is not that these voters will 'define' the post-Trump GOP, but that future Republican leaders will have to draw clear lines about who sets the agenda," argues Mr Arm.

"The heart of the party remains normie Republicans, not the edgelords that both the media and the dissident right are strangely invested in elevating."

Clashes in the conservative ranks

The divides revealed in the Manhattan Institute poll helps explain some of the most notable frictions within the Trump coalition over the past few months.

The Trump-Greene feud that culminated in the latter's resignation from Congress began with her backing of a full release of the government files connected to the Jeffrey Epstein underage sex-trafficking case – long a source of conservative conspiracy theories.

It broadened, however, into a critique of Trump's Middle East policy and accusations of his failure to address cost-of-living and healthcare concerns for low-income American voters.

An earlier high-profile Maga split erupted over Trump's economic policy, with billionaire Elon Musk, a strong supporter and member of Trump's inner circle at the start of the year, going on to condemn certain tariffs and government spending policies.

The president has, for the moment, largely tried to stay out of another bitter clash within conservative ranks over whether Nick Fuentes, a far-right political commentator and Holocaust denier, is welcome within the conservative movement.

It's a dispute that has roiled the influential Heritage Foundation and pitted some powerful right-wing commentators against each other.

According to Ms Field, those who follow Trump may find it a difficult conflict to avoid. "Nick Fuentes has a huge following," she says. "Part of how the conservative movement got the energy and power that they've got is by peddling to this part of the Republican Party."

In the halls of the Republican-controlled Congress, some signs of friction with the president's agenda are showing. Despite White House lobbying, it couldn't stop the House from passing a measure mandating release of the Epstein files.

The president has also been unable to convince Senate Republicans to abandon the filibuster, a parliamentary procedure Democrats in the minority have been able to block some of Trump's agenda.

Meanwhile, Trump's party has been stumbling at the polls, with the Democrats winning governorships in Virginia and New Jersey last month by comfortable margins.

In dozens of contested special elections for state and local seats over the past year, Democrats have on average improved their margins by around 13% over similar races held in last November's national elections.

The future of Trumpism

All of this will be front of mind for Republicans ahead of the 2026 mid-term congressional elections - and it will do little to ease the concerns held by some that, without Trump at the top of the ticket, their coalition will struggle to deliver reliable ballot-box victories.

Yet even a defeat next year – or in 2028 – is unlikely to mark the end of Trumpism.

The ascent by Trump's Maga movement to the pinnacle of American power has been far from a smooth one. It includes a mid-term rout in 2018 and Trump himself losing in 2020, before his re-election last November.

But the changes that Trump has wrought within the Republican Party itself appear to be foundational ones, according to Ms Field. His Maga coalition builds on strains of populist movements in the US that date back decades or more – from Barry Goldwater's insurgent presidential campaign in 1964 to the Tea Party protests during Barack Obama's presidency.

"These things are not coming out of nowhere. They are forces in American politics that have been underground for a while, but have been just kind of fermenting."

The old Republican order, she argues, is a relic of the past.

"The Trump movement is here to stay and there's no real likelihood of the old establishment returning with any sort of clout - that much is clear."

Top picture credit: Getty Images

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Almost 90 flights linked to Jeffrey Epstein arrived at and departed from UK airports, some with British women on board who say they were abused by the billionaire, a BBC investigation has found.

We have established that three British women who were allegedly trafficked appear in Epstein's records of flights in and out of the UK and other documents related to the convicted sex offender.

US lawyers representing hundreds of Epstein victims told the BBC it was "shocking" that there has never been a "full-scale UK investigation" into his activities on the other side of the Atlantic.

The UK was one of the "centrepieces" of Epstein's operations, one said.

Testimony from one of these British victims helped convict Epstein's accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell of child sex-trafficking in the US in 2021. But the victim has never been contacted by UK police, her Florida-based lawyer Brad Edwards told the BBC.

The woman, given the name Kate in the trial, was listed as having been on more than 10 flights paid for by Epstein in and out of the UK between 1999 and 2006.

The BBC is not publishing further details about the women in the documents because of the risk this might identify them.

US lawyer Sigrid McCawley said the British authorities have "not taken a closer look at those flights, at where he was at, who he was seeing at those moments, and who was with him on those planes, and conducted a full investigation".

Under the Jeffrey Epstein Transparency Act, the deadline to release all US government files on the sex-offender financier is Friday.

But the flight logs were among thousands of documents from court cases and Epstein's estate which have been already made public over the past year, revealing more about his time in the UK, such as trips to royal residences.

The BBC examined these documents as part of an investigation trying to piece together Epstein's activities in the UK.

It revealed that:

• The incomplete flight logs and manifests record 87 flights linked to Epstein - dozens more than were previously known - arriving or departing from UK airports between the early 1990s and 2018
• Unidentified "females" were listed among the passengers travelling into and out of the UK in the logs
• Fifteen of the UK flights took place after Epstein's 2008 conviction for soliciting sex from a minor, which should have raised questions from immigration officials

Although Epstein died in jail in 2019, before his trial on charges of trafficking minors for sex, legal experts have told the BBC a UK investigation could reveal whether British-based people enabled his crimes.

Two months ago the BBC sent the Metropolitan Police, which has previously examined allegations about Epstein's activities in Britain, publicly available information about the UK flights with suspected trafficking victims on board.

Later, we sent the Met a detailed list of questions about whether it would investigate evidence of possible British victims of Epstein trafficked in and out of the UK.

The Met did not respond to our questions. On Saturday, it released a broader statement saying that it had "not received any additional evidence that would support reopening the investigation" into Epstein and Maxwell's trafficking activities in the UK.

"Should new and relevant information be brought to our attention", including any resulting from the release of material in the US, "we will assess it", the Met said.

US lawyer Brad Edwards, who has been representing Epstein victims since 2008, told us "three or four" of his clients are British women "who were abused on British soil both by Jeffrey Epstein and others".

Other victims were recruited in the UK, trafficked to the United States and abused there, he said.

Mr Edwards said he is also representing women of other nationalities who say they were trafficked to the UK for abuse by Epstein and others.

Our analysis shows Epstein used commercial and chartered flights, as well as his private planes, to travel to the UK and to arrange transport for others, including alleged trafficking victims.

More than 50 of the flights involved his private jets, mostly flying to and from Luton Airport, with several flights at Birmingham International Airport, and one arrival and departure each at RAF Marham in west Norfolk and at Edinburgh Airport.

Limited records of commercial and chartered flights taken by Epstein, or paid for by him, show dozens more journeys, mainly via London Heathrow, but also Stansted and Gatwick.

In a number of the logs of Epstein's private planes, including some detailing trips to the UK, women on the flight are identified only as unnamed "females".

"He's absolutely choosing airports where he feels it will be easier for him to get in and out with victims that he's trafficking," said Ms McCawley.

Private aircraft did not have to provide passenger details to UK authorities before departure in the same way as commercial aircraft during the period covered by the documents we examined. The Home Office told us they were "not subject to the same centralised record-keeping".

That loophole was only closed in April last year.

Kate, the British woman who testified against Maxwell, was on some of the commercial flights in the records we examined. She described in court that she had been 17 when Maxwell befriended her and introduced her to Epstein - who then sexually abused her at Maxwell's central London home.

In the 2021 trial, she described how Maxwell gave her a schoolgirl outfit to wear and asked her to find other girls for Epstein. As well as the dozen flights to and from the UK, Kate told the court she had been flown to Epstein's island in the US Virgin Islands, New York and Palm Beach in Florida, where she says the abuse continued into her 30s.

Mr Edwards, her lawyer, told BBC News that even after that testimony, Kate has "never been asked" by any UK authorities any questions about her experience - "not even a phone call".

He said that if British police were to launch an investigation into Epstein's activities and his enablers, Kate would be happy to help.

Prof Bridgette Carr, a human-trafficking expert at the University of Michigan Law School, said trafficking cases usually require many people working together.

"It's never just one bad person," she said. "You don't think about the accountant and the lawyer and the banker - or all the bankers - and all these people that had to implicitly, and sometimes explicitly, be OK with what was happening for it to continue."

There are also questions about how Epstein was able to travel freely to the UK after his 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for sex, which meant he had to register as a sex offender in Florida, New York and the US Virgin Islands.

Epstein was released from prison in 2009 after serving 13 months. Documents suggest Epstein took a Virgin Atlantic flight from the US to London Heathrow in September 2010, just two months after he completed his probation on house arrest.

Home Office rules at the time said foreign nationals who received a prison sentence of 12 months or more should, in most cases, have been refused entry.

But immigration lawyer Miglena Ilieva, managing partner at ILEX Law Group, told us that US citizens did not usually require a UK visa for short stays, so there was no application process where they would be asked about criminal convictions.

"It was very much at the discretion of the individual immigration officer who would receive this person at the border," she said.

The Home Office said it does not hold immigration and visa records beyond 10 years and added "it is longstanding government policy that we do not routinely comment on individual cases".

During the 1980s, Epstein also used a foreign passport - issued in Austria with his picture and a false name - to enter the UK as well as France, Spain and Saudi Arabia, according to US authorities.

Epstein also listed London as his place of residence in 1985, when he applied for a replacement passport, ABC News has previously reported.

In its statement on Saturday, the Met said it had contacted "several other potential victims" when it examined 2015 allegations by Virginia Giuffre that she had been trafficked for sexual exploitation by Epstein and Maxwell.

Ms Giuffre also said she was forced to have sex with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on three occasions, including when she was 17 at Maxwell's home in London, in 2001. The former prince has consistently denied the allegations against him.

The Met said its examination of Ms Giuffre's claims "did not result in any allegation of criminal conduct against any UK-based nationals" and it concluded that "other international authorities were best placed to progress these allegations".

That decision was reviewed in August 2019 and again in 2021 and 2022 with the same result, it said.

But for lawyer Sigrid McCawley, the message the Met is sending to victims is "that if you come to law enforcement and this is a powerful person you're reporting on… it will not get investigated."

• ​​If you have information about this story that you would like to share, please email ​​epsteininvestigation@bbc.co.uk

A son of film director Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner has been arrested and booked on suspicion of murder after the couple were found dead in their Los Angeles home.

The Los Angeles Police Department said on Monday that Nick Reiner, 32, had been arrested and that he was in custody with no bail.

The deceased couple's 28-year-old daughter, Romy, found her parents in their home with multiple stab wounds on Sunday, sources told the BBC's US partner CBS News.

Rob Reiner is known for directing several iconic films in a variety of genres, including When Harry Met Sally, This is Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, Misery and A Few Good Men.

Emergency services were called to provide medical aid at the Reiners' Brentwood, California, home at around 15:38 local time (23:38 GMT) on Sunday.

The Los Angeles Fire Department said two people - later identified as Rob Reiner, 78, and his wife Michele, 68 - were pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said Nick Reiner was arrested several hours later, at about 21:15 local time on Sunday. Investigators have not publicly outlined a motive and said the investigation remains ongoing.

Nick Reiner has spoken publicly about his struggles with addiction and homelessness. His experiences formed the basis of the semi-autobiographical film Being Charlie, which he made with his father in 2015.

The family's home is in Brentwood, a wealthy celebrity enclave full of large mansions, boutique shops and restaurants. On Monday morning, a security guard stood outside the home as media gathered outside the front gate.

Rob Reiner, the son of comedy great Carl Reiner, began his career in the 1960s and rose to fame playing Meathead in the TV sitcom All in The Family.

He cemented his success with the cult mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap in 1984, which he directed and starred in.

Reiner was married to Laverne & Shirley actress Penny Marshall from 1971 to 1981 and is the adoptive father to Marshall's daughter, actress Tracy Reiner.

He married Michele Reiner in 1989, who he said he met during the making of the romantic comedy-drama film When Harry Met Sally. The couple have three children together.

Michele Reiner was an actress, photographer and producer, and the founder of Reiner Light, a photography agency and production company.

Rob Reiner was also known for his outspoken political activism and support for Democratic candidates.

In a post calling their deaths "very sad", President Donald Trump criticised Reiner, saying that they "reportedly" died "due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction" with "Trump Derangement Syndrome".

"He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump," the president wrote.

It is not clear what reports the president was referring to, and while the investigation is being treated as a homicide, police have yet to comment on any possible motive.

The president and his allies often used the term Trump Derangement Syndrome in reference to those who are critical of him. Reiner was a vocal critic of Trump's.

Several Republicans criticised Trump over the post, including former ally Marjorie Taylor Greene, who said the deaths were a "family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies".

"Many families deal with a family member with drug addiction and mental health issues. It's incredibly difficult and should be met with empathy especially when it ends in murder," she said.

Trump's post was also met with anger by some of the Reiners' friends.

In a post on X, Maria Shriver, the former first lady of California and longtime friend of the Reiners, said the couple were "devoted parents".

"They deeply loved all their children and they never gave up trying to care for them," she said.

Sir Elton John, who made an appearance in this year's Spinal Tap sequel, said: "I am in disbelief at today's news of Rob and Michele.

"They were two of the most beautiful people I'd ever met and they deserved better."

Fellow actor John Cusack, who appeared in Reiner's 1985 film The Sure Thing, called him "a great man", while Elijah Wood, who starred in 1994's North, said he was "horrified" by the couple's deaths.

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A son of film director Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner has been arrested and booked on suspicion of murder after the couple were found dead in their Los Angeles home.

The Los Angeles Police Department said on Monday that Nick Reiner, 32, had been arrested and that he was in custody with no bail.

The deceased couple's 28-year-old daughter, Romy, found her parents in their home with multiple stab wounds on Sunday, sources told the BBC's US partner CBS News.

Rob Reiner is known for directing several iconic films in a variety of genres, including When Harry Met Sally, This is Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, Misery and A Few Good Men.

Emergency services were called to provide medical aid at the Reiners' Brentwood, California, home at around 15:38 local time (23:38 GMT) on Sunday.

The Los Angeles Fire Department said two people - later identified as Rob Reiner, 78, and his wife Michele, 68 - were pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said Nick Reiner was arrested several hours later, at about 21:15 local time on Sunday. Investigators have not publicly outlined a motive and said the investigation remains ongoing.

Nick Reiner has spoken publicly about his struggles with addiction and homelessness. His experiences formed the basis of the semi-autobiographical film Being Charlie, which he made with his father in 2015.

The family's home is in Brentwood, a wealthy celebrity enclave full of large mansions, boutique shops and restaurants. On Monday morning, a security guard stood outside the home as media gathered outside the front gate.

Rob Reiner, the son of comedy great Carl Reiner, began his career in the 1960s and rose to fame playing Meathead in the TV sitcom All in The Family.

He cemented his success with the cult mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap in 1984, which he directed and starred in.

Reiner was married to Laverne & Shirley actress Penny Marshall from 1971 to 1981 and is the adoptive father to Marshall's daughter, actress Tracy Reiner.

He married Michele Reiner in 1989, who he said he met during the making of the romantic comedy-drama film When Harry Met Sally. The couple have three children together.

Michele Reiner was an actress, photographer and producer, and the founder of Reiner Light, a photography agency and production company.

Rob Reiner was also known for his outspoken political activism and support for Democratic candidates.

In a post calling their deaths "very sad", President Donald Trump criticised Reiner, saying that they "reportedly" died "due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction" with "Trump Derangement Syndrome".

"He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump," the president wrote.

It is not clear what reports the president was referring to, and while the investigation is being treated as a homicide, police have yet to comment on any possible motive.

The president and his allies often used the term Trump Derangement Syndrome in reference to those who are critical of him. Reiner was a vocal critic of Trump's.

Several Republicans criticised Trump over the post, including former ally Marjorie Taylor Greene, who said the deaths were a "family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies".

"Many families deal with a family member with drug addiction and mental health issues. It's incredibly difficult and should be met with empathy especially when it ends in murder," she said.

Trump's post was also met with anger by some of the Reiners' friends.

In a post on X, Maria Shriver, the former first lady of California and longtime friend of the Reiners, said the couple were "devoted parents".

"They deeply loved all their children and they never gave up trying to care for them," she said.

Sir Elton John, who made an appearance in this year's Spinal Tap sequel, said: "I am in disbelief at today's news of Rob and Michele.

"They were two of the most beautiful people I'd ever met and they deserved better."

Fellow actor John Cusack, who appeared in Reiner's 1985 film The Sure Thing, called him "a great man", while Elijah Wood, who starred in 1994's North, said he was "horrified" by the couple's deaths.

Talks between Ukraine and the US aimed at reaching a peace deal with Russia are continuing in Berlin for a second day.

Zelensky and his chief negotiator Rustem Umerov met US envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner for five hours on Sunday, joined by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

"A lot of progress was made," a US readout said. The same team resumed talks on Monday morning.

Ahead of the start of the meeting, Volodymyr Zelensky signalled he would give up ambitions to join Nato in exchange for security guarantees.

Recognising that "some partners from the US and Europe" did not support Ukraine's bid for Nato membership, Zelensky said he was instead seeking strong security guarantees modelled on Nato's Article 5 clause of mutual protection.

"And this is already a compromise on our part," he said on Sunday.

Witkoff has travelled to Moscow to hold talks with Vladimir Putin on several occasions, but Sunday's meeting at the chancellery in Berlin was the first time he met Zelensky. Nato Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Alexus Grynkewich was also present at the talks.

Several European leaders as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are expected to join further talks with the Ukrainian and US delegations on Monday evening.

At the core of the discussions in Berlin is the 20-point peace plan proposal presented to the US by Ukraine last week to counter an initial American plan which was seen as heavily favouring Russia.

Details haven't been shared, but last week Zelensky said the points should be seen as a "foundation" on which to build provisions for the reconstruction of Ukraine and security guarantees.

For Russia, Kyiv's membership of Nato is a red line, and Moscow has repeatedly demanded that any ambitions for Ukraine to join the alliance are shelved forever. "This issue is one of the cornerstones and requires special discussion," said the Kremlin on Monday.

The US too has repeatedly stated it does not want Ukraine to be part of Nato. But Kyiv fears that a peace deal without watertight security guarantees would fail to detract Russia from attacking again.

Before the talks began, Zelensky also addressed the thorny issue of sovereignty over the eastern region of the Donbas, which Russia mostly occupies and which it wants Kyiv to hand over in their entirety.

The Ukrainian president said that while he was open to freezing the conflict along the current front line he was not prepared to have his troops withdraw from the percentage of the Donbas they still hold - unless Russian forces did the same in the areas they control.

For it to be a fair arrangement Russia would have to withdraw the same distance, Zelensky said. This matter was "extremely sensitive and heated," he added.

Any proposal hashed out by the Ukrainian, American and European side will still have to be presented to Moscow – although Zelensky said that the US delegation "so to speak present the Russian side's perspective, because they relay Russia's signals, demands, steps, and indications of readiness or lack thereof."

The Kremlin said it expected the US to provide us with the "concept" discussed on Monday.

The talks in Berlin come at a crucial time for Ukraine, which is enduring its fourth winter of war amid sustained power cuts caused by Russia's attacks on its energy facilities. Over the weekend more than a million households in Ukraine were left without electricity following a barrage of strikes.

Later this week, EU countries will be voting on a plan to send €90bn (£78.6bn) worth of frozen Russian assets held in a Belgium-based financial institution to prop up Ukraine's economy.

On Friday, EU governments agreed to immobilise the Russian assets indefinitely - but there is no consensus yet on whether they can be sent to Ukraine. Belgium has been resisting the legally contentious proposal, and in recent days other countries, including Italy, have said "alternative options" should be put forward.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas acknowledged the discussions were "increasingly difficult".

"But we're doing the work, and we still have some days," she added.

Rishi Sunak has said there was no "toolkit" to deal with the economic shock caused by the Covid pandemic.

The former Conservative prime minister, who was chancellor during the crisis, told an inquiry there was "not a playbook" to guide how to respond and deal with the economy being ground to a halt due to the lockdown.

"We were dealing with something no one had dealt with before," he said.

Sunak added job losses as a result of people being told to stay at home were unavoidable, but said the government was "successful in preventing mass unemployment".

The former PM was giving evidence to the public inquiry into the pandemic on Monday, answering questions on the policies he set out to support workers' incomes and keep businesses afloat.

He said that at the outbreak of the crisis, there was an "enormous amount of uncertainty", with policymakers and experts unsure of the scale and duration of the virus and how the population would respond to any measures imposed by the government.

"There was not a toolkit, there was not a playbook that you could pull of the shelf that said this is how you tend to deal with pandemics in the same way you somewhat have with other economic shocks or financial shocks," he said.

Over the past three weeks, the inquiry has been delving into the economic response to the pandemic, hearing from former ministers, treasury officials and central bankers.

Sunak's appearance on Monday was the second time he has taken the stand, after previously giving evidence in December 2023 when he was still prime minister.

He was appointed chancellor of Boris Johnson's government on 13 February, and was preparing to present a Budget before the pandemic hit UK shores and the country was put into lockdown a month later.

Sunak told the inquiry that one of his priorities was to prevent mass unemployment and said "speed was paramount" in the government's response.

He said there was an "acknowledgement" in the Treasury that they were not going to "get everything right straight away".

"We could not let perfect be the enemy of the good," he said. "We had to get things out fast."

Sunak said it was not possible "to save every person's job", but said that "as it turned out, the impact on living standards particularly for the most vulnerable in society... were stronger that I would have perhaps anticipated going into this and I'm very proud of that".

The coronavirus job retention scheme, known as furlough, was announced by Sunak in March 2020.

At his previous appearance in front of the inquiry, Sunak defended his Eat Out to Help Out policy, which was one of the government's policy measures aimed to support businesses reopening after the first lockdown.